


Home Coming

by phoenixbird27



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 12:50:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17560709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixbird27/pseuds/phoenixbird27
Summary: It's ten years after Ash's death, and Eiji too has left the world of the living--but something seems to be holding him back.





	Home Coming

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Prince Jamie](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Prince+Jamie).



> Credit to my idiot friend Prince Jamie.

Home Coming 

It was a sunny day the day Eiji died.  
It was an accident really--dying. He hadn’t meant to not look both ways when crossing the streets. He recall there being a loud honk and the shrill shriek of rubber tires trying to screech to a halt, and screams--maybe Sing’s, maybe his own. He wasn’t sure.  
All he knew after that was black.  
It wasn’t black anymore though, Eiji thought as he blinked up against the sunlight pouring down over his face like an embrace. It was funny, because the legends were true--you really don’t get to feel warmth after you’d died.  
Eiji glanced at the ground beside him where his body lay crumpled in crushed heap, a pool of crimson expanding by the second. Sing’s hands were a flurry of fingers, prodding at him, trying to urge Eiji to regain consciousness.  
Eiji’s heart sank a little in his chest.  
Sorry Sing, he thought silently to himself.  
In the distance the wail of an ambulance was getting stronger by the second. Eiji turned around to leave. He didn’t want to stay for this part- the part when they pronounced him dead.  
He didn’t want to see the look on Sing’s face.  
But Eiji was sure Sing had already known---  
That he was already gone. 

Eiji was gone, but where exactly were you supposed to go when you died?  
He’d spent the next couple of hours wandering the streets of New York City, waiting for some beaming light to guide him on his way to the afterlife or whatever came next, but nothing came.  
No light. No nothing.  
After scouring what seemed like the entirety of New York, Eiji finally gave up. Perhaps he couldn’t pass on because there was still something left for him to do?  
But what?  
After aimlessly walking for an entire day, Eiji finally noticed where he was. When he was living, he made an effort to never step within a mile radius of this place.  
Because this was his place.  
This was where he died.  
Eiji laughed humorlessly under his breath. It couldn’t be that the last thing he had to do was to finally come to terms with this place was it?  
Suddenly a memory flashed through his mind--another time, another day he was here with that person. That person had grinned up at him as he leaned over his piles of pharmacology journals--  
“ Why don’t you go find yourself some manga to read, Eiji?” He had said, a small teasing lilt to his voice.  
Eiji smiled and glanced up at the New York Public Library. He took a step forward. 

The library was still exactly the same as it was ten years ago, Eiji thought as he entered the building. Same architecture, same smell of old books and a faint lingering smell of coffee.  
There was where he and that person once sat reading together--Eiji manga and the other person something highly educated that Eiji didn’t understand... There was where that person once fell asleep, and Eiji had spent a solid minute staring at him before deciding to wake him up from his sweet slumber. Eiji remember thinking he’d looked like a painting-- all golden hair and sunlight.  
And there was---  
Eiji stopped in his tracks.  
There sitting slumped against the long oak tables of the Rose reading room, a pile of leather bound books by his side was a person-- Eiji choked down his tears. A very familiar looking person.  
Finally, he understood why he couldn’t pass on just yet. It hadn’t been the New York Public Library that had been waiting for him after all.  
The person was wearing a simple black t-shirt, and slouchy jeans that hugged his long slim model-esque legs. His face was angled downwards, blonde locks tickled the top of his eyes that were also turned downwards to the book he held in his hands. Blonde eyelashes dusted the tops of his cheeks like golden feathers---Eiji couldn’t see his eyes, but he knew they’d be a green so beautiful, no jade or emerald could ever compare.  
He tried to open his mouth but no sound came out.  
So instead, he walked around across the table and pulled out the chair across that person. The blonde noticed the scrape of wood against wood and glanced up from his book.  
Eiji was right--green eyes. And those eyes...once they fell upon Eiji sitting before him they flashed with recognition, then with an emotion Eiji couldn’t quite place.  
“ Ash,” Eiji breathed. This time, his voice cooperated with him. It came out uneven and shaky though.  
Ash opened his mouth then closed it again. After what seemed like an eternity, he said, “ you’re here early, idiot.”  
Eiji laughed. Somehow, that was exactly what he’d expected Ash to say to him if they were to ever meet again.  
“ Sorry,” Eiji chuckled, struggling to keep the sobs that threatened to rise from his throat down, “ got into a car crash.”  
“ You idiot,” Ash repeated. Eiji realized that it was the first time he’d seen Ash struggling to find words to say.  
“I know.”  
Another pause.  
“ You didn’t pass on?” Eiji said instead.  
Ash didn’t reply, then swallowed hard. “ How could I?” He whispered after a pause, “ if you weren’t here?”  
Eiji couldn’t hold back the tears anymore, he let them roll down his cheeks as he laughed.  
“I really am an idiot aren’t I? Sorry I made you wait.”  
Hesitantly, he reached out across the table and found the other boy’s hand. A rush of warmth flooded through his body as their skin made contact.  
Ash intertwined their fingers, staring at them with disbelief. Eiji never really noticed how perfectly his hand fit into Ash’s--as if they were guiding him home..or perhaps, Ash was home?  
“ Are you really here?” Eiji whispered, a slight tremor to his voice.  
“ I’m here.”  
“ And you’re never leaving this time?”  
“ Only when you get sick and tired of me.”  
Eiji laughed, then started crying-- loud heaping sobs escaped his mouth and he couldn’t stop. He was glad he was technically dead, so he couldn’t be a public disturbance to the rest of the library. Because boy, would he have been a disturbance if he’d been alive.  
And so, the two boys---one dark and one light clutched at each other across the tables of the new york public library for dear life-- neither one seeming to want to let go as the sun set across the rest of New York City. 

-end


End file.
